Mutagen

<strong>Day 152 - 7:21 PM - Farmhouse, Coconut Plantation, Labingan, Municipality of Cawayan, Province of Masbate</strong>

The province of Masbate. It was a province made up of a large island, two islands smaller than the largest, and a few even smaller ones in the southernmost of the Bicol Region. It was also located at the crossroads of the island groups of Luzon and Visayas.

Since it was an island, it was detached from the mainland. And unlike Catanduanes, it was lucky to not have an airplane crashing into its land to create a Ground Zero when the apocalypse began.

Unfortunately, it was not a lucky place to be unaffected by the outbreak.

Being an island, many thought it to be safer than the mainland. There were also people from the surrounding islands filled with infected that came to this place for safety.

Even if Masbate had more than eight hundred thousand people living in it, the population was widely divided into its islands. This left a huge part of the island mostly untouched by the civilization along with its abundant grasslands.

In many ways, it was a nice island to dwell in the apocalypse. The wide plains would allow others to see threats far before they came. The mountains and seas around the island would provide people with food. Lastly, as said before, no ground zeros of the outbreak were located on this island.

Those very reasons put this island in more danger.

People flocked into the island, urged by the government's announcements.

And they brought along the infected with them unknowingly.

Even before the animals could evolve or the marine animals managed to leave the sea, the island was already mostly dead.

Despite the government announcements, this island was not really among the places they set up a military settlement. Thus, everyone was left to rely on local police, military forces, and even the anti-government militia.

They did not last long. The longest was a little more than a month. These local forces were defeated, and the people were left to fend for themselves.

Only a small number of people was left on this island. They were left to struggle to survive in the threats that surrounded them.

It was good that a large patch of the island was composed of grasslands. They managed to survive in these places more than running into the mountains.

After all, not only were the infected the threat they needed to face.

Today, however, a lot of the survivors on this island were shaken.

Before sunset, they saw two large monsters flying in the sky. They were sure that the two creatures landed on the southwest side of the island.

No one suggested by everyone decided. The survivors of Masbate would do their best to stay away from that part of the island.

Unfortunately for those survivors, they would never know. While they were shaking in fear, the culprits for their fear were not really interested in them even in the slightest.

The two monsters landed by the southwestern coast, obeying the orders of their masters.

Of course, they were Mark's group, finding a place to spend the night. What they found was a group of structures in the middle of a coconut plantation.

Despite the place being surrounded by wide empty farmlands on the north and east sides, its west and southern areas were nothing but seawater. It was not an ideal place for people to stay, considering no one would know what kind of monster would suddenly come ashore.

To Mark's group, however, that thing did not matter. While regular people would pray to their gods when an evolved marine animal appeared from the seat to attack their settlements, it was the complete opposite if it was Mark's group.

The ones that would need to pray were the evolved marine animals.

Fresh seafood was a delicacy, after all.

From the structures, only the farmhouse that belonged to the owner of the plantation was habitable.

Some were just storage and equipment sheds. There was also a processing area. None of those were places that one would stay for the night.

The farmhouse did not seem to be rich-looking. It was just a plain, modern structure with a few decorations. However, the house was huge enough to house a large family, not to mention Mark's group.

Unfortunately, while it was looking neat outside, the inside was trashed. It seemed that the place had long been looted by scavengers. Nothing of value was left in the house. For some reason, even appliances were missing. It was likely that rather than scouring the place for supplies to survive, it was more a case of theft.

The only good thing was that there were no signs of people being killed inside the house. In the least, there would be no need to clean some disgusting remains of dead people before they eat dinner and sleep.

Since the group would continue their journey early in the morning, everyone went to sleep early. Mark, Berrak, and Pefile had their own methods of securing everyone's safety. There was also Berrak's summons and Chaflar to lookout outside.

It was fine to take a good rest for tomorrow. Even Pefile was taking advantage of the situation and was sleeping. It seemed that he wanted to be in top shape once they reached their destination.

However, while everyone was already asleep, there was one person that could not.

"Gege?"

Mei softly called out as she climbed onto the roof of the farmhouse. There, Mark was lying down, gazing at the moon and the stars.

Mark glanced at Mei with a slight smile.

"Climb up."

Like usual, Mei was up when Mark was missing. It was not like she could not sleep without Mark by her side. However, she wanted to spend as much time as she could with him. With the little girls around, she could not monopolize Mark. In the least, nighttime was her time with him, even if it was just sleeping together. Of course, she would not force it if Mark found it troublesome. In the least, it did not seem so. In fact, Mark appreciated her eagerness to spend time with him more than she thought.

Mei sat down beside Mark. The two were silent for a moment. In a regular situation, one would ask why the other was still awake. As for Mark and Mei, there was no need to. They were used to this kind of situation.

However, it was quite different tonight. Mei was suspiciously glancing at Mark, seemingly hesitating about something.

"Want to ask me something?"

Mark finally spoke. It was impossible for him not to notice Mei's hesitation. Although she was hesitating, her emotions were filled with curiosity, indicating that she was interested in something but not sure if she should ask.

Finally, Mei mustered the courage.

With a deep inhale, she spoke.

"I hated my family. I don't want to be involved with them anymore. But Gege, you don't seem to hate yours. You took great lengths to at least remove the greatest threats for them. But even so, you don't want to meet them. I'm curious. Well, you really don't have to answer if it's troublesome."

Mei was really curious. However, it seemed that she was hesitating to ask Mark because it might bother him instead.

Still...

"I just want to know more about you."

Mei added, staring at Mark's eyes.

Those words and her sincere expression...

"That is foul play, you know?"

Mark smiled bitterly. There was no way that he would be able to reject that.

Mei became troubled. Did her question really troubled Mark? If that was the case, she should not have asked.

But then, Mark started talking as he gazed once more towards the starry sky.

"You're right. I don't hate my family. But it doesn't mean that I like them either. It was more towards dislike, to be honest, though."

Mei fell silent as she intently listened to Mark. She was like a little girl waiting to be told her favorite fairytale.

Mark could only shake his head slightly, seeing Mei's behavior.

"You see, even as their child, I can list more bad things about my parents than good things."

***

Mark's parents, Marvy and Grace, had a pretty outdated outlook on life. It was something that could not be helped because of the environment they grew up in. Both his parents came from rural provinces, where it was common for a child to end up doing labor to help their parents. Furthermore, their parents were not good ones either.

The bad thing, however, Mark grew up while his parents always compared their lives when they were his age. Thus, he was forced into an outlook that he had it better than his parents and must do things better. The same thing happened to Mark's siblings, with the exception of the youngest.

However, the intensity was overwhelmingly different. For a child of Mark's age at that time, he could not help but think that his parents were playing favorites. Of course, he was not the favorite one. It was his younger siblings.

Mark's parents were also strict and overprotective. It was very hard to get out of the house unless it was something related to school. They would always say that it was dangerous outside and something bad could happen.

Thus, Mark and his siblings never ever made friends among the children in the neighborhood. In fact, the other people saw Mark and his children as odd children that did not want to socialize with others.

It was even if it was actually their parent's fault.

This continued for a long time.

Too long that even though Mark was already in college, the furthest place that Mark reached alone with his parents knowing was just at the border of the province. It was utterly surprising to know since Bacoor was literally at the border of Northeastern Cavite. It meant that he did not actually go that far.

Secretly, though, Mark managed to reach further places. Even other municipalities nearby. Of course, if it was known by his parents at that time, he would be subjected to a frightening intensity of sermons and scolding.

It was hard for Mark to keep those secrets. After all, his mother could more or less see through shallow lies.

Mark grew being scolded a lot. It was even at times he was doing his best but did not reach the standards that his mother wanted. The scolding was too much to the point that Mark grew up afraid of being scolded at all.

Although he became used to it after a long time and Mark learned to tighten his expressions, his heart would always intensely pound whenever he heard his mother's angry voice.

It was even if he was not the one being scolded at all.

Because of this, Mark learned to shift blames as much as he could or even throw excuses to avoid being scolded a lot.

But of course, it was not the worst thing.

Asian mothers were known to scold and hit their children when they did something wrong or even if they were just angry. It was not all of them but there was a lot.

Mark's mother was just like that. Fortunately, his mother was not the type to always hit them. But when she did, there would be another broken plastic hanger in the trash soon.

From these kinds of things, Mark grew up afraid of his parents. He followed their instructions as much as he could, rational or not.

In fact, at an early age, rather than helping with house chores, Mark was doing the house chores by himself. It was because he was tasked by his parents to do it once.

And for some reason, it became his duty alone.

Mark did not question it, though.

Washing the dishes, cooking dinner and lunch, washing the clothes, sweeping the yard, and other chores. Mark did all of this alone with very few questions.

He was thinking that when the time came, it would be the turn of his siblings to do this kind of work or at least help.

Years passed and Mark realized.

His siblings were already past the age of the first time he took the chores. Yet, none of them were even pushed to his role or even help him.

And he also realized...

Mark's mother stopped doing most of the chores that were supposed to be her duty as the woman of the house.

All of it was thrown unto him for some reason.

***

"It was the time that I thought." Mark sighed. "Maybe, I'm adopted."